Strawberry Dream Cake

My 4 year old found a picture of this came and requested it for his 5th birthday cake. Apparently he’s got sophisticated tastes for a small child! Anyway, so happy that he found this because it’s now what I want for my birthday cake! It’s like a yummy strawberry shortcake cake. Not too sweet not too heavy. Just right!

Followed the recipe word-for-word and this is what happened. It did taste great, though. My question is, how can you possibly place the strawberries and then cut the cake so perfectly that the upright strawberries near the outside of the cake come out perfectly sliced? I think you'd have to have x-ray vision to see through the cake and frosting. Seems a little too perfect and not very likely.***UPDATE***After we refrigerated the cake, we realized that that was the best way to keep it from collapsing.

I made this cake today for a Fourth of July Celebration Pot Luck.  Absolutely fantastic cake.  Moist and delicate at the same time.  Loved by all and beautiful.

This is a delicious, sturdy full bodied cake. Followed instructions exactly for both cake and icing and they turned out perfectly. Texture may be more dense than some may expect but very tasty and good for holding up the berries. A few observations: 1) I only had icing to generously ice the layers and I left the sides exposed. Presentation was beautiful as you could see the berries. 2) used two 10 inch pans as my 9 inch were not deep enough (only 1.5 inches). Next time I'll use three 8 inch pans and chop the berries for the interior layer to make it easier to stack. 3) topped with large fanned berries and served with extra macerated berries optional topping. This cake is beautiful and was a big hit.

I did have to use two frosting recipes for the cake probably cause the strawberry's were huge. Perhaps if they were smaller a 2nd recipe would not be necessary.

I loved this cake. I did double my recipe for the icing though.

Try shaking the heavy cream prior to use. Then crank up that mixer and go! The longer you mix the stiffer the cream gets.

It's a great 4th of July cake! The icing is absolutely delicious! My tip is to remember to fill in the icing around the exterior strawberries!

My mom and I made this yummy and beautiful cake today. The frosting is light and fluffy which goes perfectly with the sweet strawberries. The texture and taste of the cake were amazing. Be sure to chill the whipping cream and mascarpone cheese throughly before making the frosting to prevent a runny frosting. In addition, we decided to make 1.5 times the amount of frosting the recipe called for, which turned out to be the perfect amount. One simple substitute for mascarpone cheese (which is somewhat difficult to find), is 12 ounces of cream cheese, 3/8 cup whipping cream, and 4 tablespoons of sour cream (do not substitute low fat cream cheese or sour cream). This recipe will yield 12-14 ounces of mascarpone cheese, enough to make 1.5 times the amount of frosting the original recipe calls for. This is a lovely summertime cake, fitting for any occasion. Next time, we are going to try it with blueberries!

 Made this cake for Mothers' Day dinner, and it was a HUGE hit in our family. For me, it turned out dense but definitely not dry, a good heavy complement to the light frosting. The almond extract gave it a lovely flavor, and I had great luck with the frosting -- didn't turn out runny for me at all. It wasn't a stiff frosting by any means, but it held onto the cake just fine. We had great farm-fresh strawberries to use in it. My mom in law said it was one of the best cakes she'd ever had, which made my day! Will be making this one again -- it's now my favorite fancy dessert for strawberry season!

I made this for Mother's Day to take to my parents and it was the perfect spring dessert for a special occasion.  A bit involved between the folded-in egg whites and the prep and sizing of the strawberries. It is a denser cake but not in a bad way (I was worried).  And don't skip the almond extract!   I'm not a big almond extract person but this was the perfect complement, everyone who ate it agreed but didn't realize what the flavor was in exactly, just that it was perfect.  I can see how the frosting could be too runny, once I stirred in the sugar I put it back in the fridge for a bit before folding in the whipped cream and I think that saved it.  Also I didn't frost the edges which probably saved me a ton of headache! I just let the strawberries show through the side like the picture and pilled the creamy frosting on top/in between the berrys and then on top of the cake.  It looked like a rustic strawberry shortcake and was beautiful!  

Brought this cake to a Mother's Day gathering and it was a hit! Loved the flavor and consistency of the cake.. It is pound cake-esque, although not quite that dense. I thought the frosting was great, did not have an issue with it being runny, and had enough to ice the whole cake, although certainly not tons leftover. I think baking this on a relatively cool, non-humid day helped. The only real issue I had was the aesthetics, think if I had it to do over again, I would not start the middle layer of strawberries so close to the edge, and leave room for me to push in the strawberries from the outside after icing.

I am in no way a cake expert actually this was only my second cake to make from scratch. The cake came out awesome. Tasted great and had a really good density to it. However I too had a very runny frosting. I followed the directions and don't know where I went wrong. I was disappointed to say the least.

The person who wrote the first review must have done something wrong because this cake was delicious! I made three 8 inch cake layers because I didn't have a 9 inch pan. The cake is the consistency of a pound cake. I also sliced the strawberries and laid them flat between the layers. This frosting is just the right consistency, easy to spread, and tasted so good! I fed this to a bunch of college kids, who devoured it!

Not sure what other reviewer was talking about. This cake was delicious. It was moist, a thick consistency like pound cake. The icing was delicious. I took it to work and it was promptly devoured by 730 am. No one has a complaint.

It is a high cake with the strawberries upright in middle, and so the icing recipe wasn't enough. I ended up frosting the top with cool whip because I ran out of the marscarpone cream, which was sweet and fresh, very good. It all turned out beautifully, but I gave it 4/5 stars because I really needed double the icing!!

This cake was the worst cake I have ever made.  I followed the recipe exactly. The cake came out very dense and dry, more like a pound cake.  The frosting was absolutely runny.  No way was it going to stand up and spread like traditional frosting.  I ended up slicing the strawberries and put them on top of the first layer, and poured the frosting over the first layer, then poured over the entire cake and placed sliced strawberries on top.  I made this cake when I saw it on the cover of the May 2016 cover of Southern Living Magazine for my mother's 82nd birthday with family and friends.  I was so disappointed in this cake that I will NEVER make this again.